Trapped in a High School AU
by The Dimenssionalist
Summary: Sonic is trapped in another crappy high school AU, but this time it's different. This time he's aware. And he'll do whatever it takes to free himself and friends from the sheer awfulness of it all. My way of pointing out all the terrible high school AUs out there in the archive. As well as a few other horrible things such a ridiculous shippings, OOC, Mary-Sues and other disgraces.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Let it be said here and now that I hate high school AUs. To me, they are the worst type of fanfiction. There's also a ton of other things in fanfiction I hate. So I made this nifty little story. My way of pointing all the terrible things that lurk the Sonic the Hedgehog archive. High School? Check. Vampires and Werewolves? Check. Mary-Sues, OOC, bad plot, mixed continuity, bad pairing? All check. Now before you leave thinking you're about to read the worst story ever, I'd advise you to stick around for at least this chapter to see how it works. I hope you all enjoy.**

_Trapped in a High School AU_

* * *

A blue blur shot down the green hills at sonic speed. Racing down Green Hill Zone was the world famous Sonic the Hedgehog enjoying a run through his favorite zone in all of Mobius. From a birds-eye view he looked like a blue lightning bolt tearing apart the grasslands. It was times like these that Sonic really enjoyed; just running around without a care in the world. Since his last adventure with the infamous Dr. Eggman on the Lost Hex, things had been pretty peaceful. After deciding he'd ran enough laps, Sonic sped through a loop hill and headed straight for Emerald Town.

Sonic entered through one of the town gates and raced through the streets looking for his friend Tails' house. What he didn't expect to find was a robed figure who managed to trip Sonic with just a wave of her hand.

Sonic tumbled into the ground, almost doing a Spin-Dash, before being stopped by his spines.

"Hey, who did that?" The Hedgehog whipped his head around until he saw the robed figure standing by a nearby stoplight.

"Hello Sonic the Hedgehog." The voice sounded female. It also seemed to resonate from the surrounding area, not just from the speaker. "My name is FF Ryde Er."

"Well I'm-" Sonic prepared to give his trademark, James Bond style, introduction until realizing the person named FF Ryde Er already knew his name. "As you apparently already know, I'm Sonic the Hedgehog. Mind telling me why you decided to ruin a good day?"

"Simple." Ryde pointed to a building a few blocks down. It looked like a high school. "I am the new ruler of this universe. Everything here is under my power and I'm going to make a story out of you and your friends."

Given an experience with genies a year or so back, Sonic was especially cautious of that sentence.

"What kind of story?" Sonic bent his knees preparing to fight the stranger if necessary.

"A high school AU." Ryde Er waved his hand and suddenly

Everything

Around

Sonic

Faded

Away

To black.

When Sonic finally woke up, he was facing a large red building. He recognized it as the high school FF Ryde Er pointed at.

"Sonic, what's up!" Came a cheery voice.

The voice's owner was Sonic's longtime friend Tails the Fox.

"Tails, buddy!" Sonic greeted the orange fox with a high five when he flew up the stone steps. "Nice to see ya' pal, maybe you can help me out with this mess."

"Let me guess. You didn't do your summer reading project and now you want to copy of mine?" Tails guessed with a smirk.

"What? No Tails. What are you talking about? It's spring!" Sonic noticed something different about Tails. It took him a while to register but he noticed that his friend was actually wearing clothes! A white T with orange sleeves and pants with holes in the back allowing his tails to fly free. All Sonic could think of was how none of that could possibly make someone faster.

After another look around, Sonic found that the outside of the school was filled with different Mobians walking about; all of them fully dressed.

"Sonic is something wrong with you?" Tails asked.

"Wrong with me? What's this doing here?" Sonic waved his hands in a sweeping motion. "What's going on here? Why is everyone fully clothed? Why are there so many Mobians in one place?"

"Whoa, Sonic calm down! In case you weren't aware, public nudity is against the law. Also, that's a high school. We go here, we were here last year, remember?" Tails was talking in a soothing voice in hopes of calming Sonic down.

"No Tails. I don't know what's wrong with you but this school wasn't here and I think I know just who's responsible for this." With that said, Sonic took off for the same streetlight where he met FF Ryde Er. He was surprised to find she was still there.

"Alright creep, you better tell me what's going on. What's up with Tails?" Sonic demanded.

Ryde Er just laughed.

"As previously stated, I control this world now. Everyone, everything, the timelines, every single thing in your universe is under my control, except you for some reason. No matter, the story will continue and everyone will love it!"

"What do you mean 'everyone will love it?' Just who are you?"

"I'm a fan of course. Now return to the story please."

When Ryde said that, Sonic felt a tug pulling him back to the school; just in time for the bell to ring.

"I don't know what's going on here but I'm gonna find out, even if it means playing through whatever story FF Ryde Er has planned for" Sonic thought to himself.

He looked into the hallway to see Tails talking to someone.

"Don't worry Tails, I'll get us out of this."

With that, Sonic stepped into the hallway and into the worst adventure of his life.

* * *

**A/N: So how's that for a prologue? I kinda like it but I feel like it was missing something. Keep in mind readers; this will not be some typical high school AU, this story is built around destroying those things. Also note that high school AUs are not the only thing this story will be destroying from the inside out. Sonic will still have to deal with things like out of characterness, godmodded Mary-Sues, vampires, werewolves and all sorts of crap. Hope you guys enjoy and stick around for the next chapter. Be sure to review on your way out, I want this to be as good as possible so constructive criticism would be nice. Hell, I'll even take flames since I'm sure I'll get at least one with this thing.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: this story became strangely popular. because of that, I've decided to ignore my update schedule (which I was already ignoring) and add another chapter. First a few shout-outs to some of the reviewers.**

**Streaky the Tiger: Glad you're enjoying this! If you're hoping to get a learning experience out of this, this chapter might give you an example on what not to do when writing canon characters.**

**Guest 2: I'll make sure you hate Mary-Sues by chapter 3. Nice to know you'll be sticking around. I'll make sure you aren't disappointed.**

**Yoshizilla: Dang, had I known you'd be here I'd have rolled out the red carpet. Its nice to know someone FF famous is reading this.**

**Gamergirl: This is the third time I've seen you! Why are you everywhere I turn!? Still, thanks for enjoying. Hopefully you didn't have to wait too long.**

**Everyone else: Even though I've paired you all together, it's not to say your reviews aren't important. I thank all of you for taking the time to read and review. In fact, a thanks to everyone who picked my story out of thousands upon thousands of stories! You're all great!**

**With those out of the way, lets move one to the actual story.**

* * *

No amount of training could prepare Sonic for the absolute torture he went through. Having never gone to high school (or any school for that matter) Sonic didn't know what to expect. He certainly didn't think that school would just be him sitting in a chair writing whatever the teacher told you to. It seemed easy at first until he realized a horrifying truth: it was the most boring thing in history. To make things worse, it was history! A bunch of stuff that happened years ago which, to Sonic, felt like an absolutely pointless thing to present was all that really mattered.

"Shadow would love this class." Sonic thought to himself.

Sonic decided it was better to not take notes or pay attention. Not just because it was killing him on the inside, but because he felt doing so would make him like the students here, which would be exactly what FF Ryde Er wanted. Sonic figured that if he could defy Ryde, her power would weaken. At the very least, he didn't want to live following Ryde's plans. Unfortunately for Sonic, not doing anything had its own consequences. Sitting still wasn't easy for the hyper hedgehog; he felt that he'd explode from built up energy if he kept sitting in that class. Eventually, he managed to fall asleep, hoping that a nap would make the time go faster.

.

..

…

….

"Mr. Sonic! Care to wake up?" came a voice.

Sonic opened his eyes to see an elderly Echidna looking down at him. Sonic, forgetting that teachers were an authority, replied with a snarky: "Why yes! I'd love to wake up from my nap to waste my time learning about someone else's time."

The class gasped at Sonic's remark and the teachers face grew to an even brighter shade of red. He was ticked.

"Mister Sonic, I will not have that tone in my classroom! Get out of here and report to the principal's office immediately!"

"I get to leave? Alright!"

Sonic leaped out of his chair and ran out the door into the hallways. He didn't care if he had to report to some principal, he was free! Granted, he felt a little guilty about being so unnecessarily snarky to the man who was just doing his job, but he didn't feel guilty enough to run back and apologize. He arrived at the oak door with the word "principal" marked on the glass and walked inside. Whoever was in there was bound to be some sort of authority. One that could probably get him out of school. If he could convince the principal that he wasn't supposed to be here and that a mysterious lady changed reality so that everyone would have to go to school and he was the only one who knew that reality had been changed for some reason, then he would be that much closer to stopping Ryde. Not to mention, the principal could probably help by notifying GUN or someone with enough bulk to undo whatever it is Ryde did to this world. Sonic had done it. By defying the school system he could escape and return everything to normal. He just had to convince the principal...

* * *

"More School!?"

Sonic was currently in the cafeteria with his tray on the lunch table. Standing next to him was Tails.

"So they're aware that being here is like being in prison and their punishment for trying escape and save the world is more school?"

Sonic's meeting with the principal hadn't gone at all as Sonic had planned. The principal got irritated by Sonic's story and told him to spend more time focusing in class so he wouldn't dream about cloaked, reality changing villains that found entertainment in watching people go to school. He then sentenced Sonic to after school detention as punishment for disrespectful behavior. Needless to say, Sonic was even further away from getting things back to normal.

Sonic balled up the detention slip and threw it in the nearby wastebin.

"Forget this!" He said. "I'm not spending anymore time here than I already have. I'm gonna bust out and give FF Ryde Er a well deserved head-kick."

Tails had a panicked expression upon seeing his friend discard his detention notice.

"Sonic, you can't just skip detention!" He warned. "They might kick you out of school or something!"

"If my punishment for not staying here for another minute is getting kicked out, then I'm definitely not going. This whole world is a lie Tails! You'll thank me when I get us out of here."

Tails just rolled his eyes and sat at one of tables. Sonic joined him and was surprised to see who else was sitting there.

"Knuckles? Amy? Silver? Blaze? Shadow? Rouge? Cream? What are you guys doing here?"

"We sit here all the time, Sonic. Or have you forgotten the table you specifically picked out for us last year?" Explained Rouge.

"Oh yeah," laughed Silver. "Sonic ran to this table and waved like crazy for us all to sit with him. Then he declared it as our personal table for all time."

Everyone laughed at this memory. Everyone but Sonic.

"What are you guys talking about?" Asked Sonic. "I never did any of that! This school never existed last year. This school didn't exist until a few hours ago! You know what really happened last year? Dr. Eggman freed the god of destruction, Chaos, from the Master Emerald that Knuckles was doing a lousy job of guarding. We collected the emeralds, fought Chaos, Eggman and each other and then I used the emeralds to go super so I could defeat Chaos in his perfect form!"

Knuckles laughed at him and everyone else joined in with him. " Did you dream about that while we were in history, Sonic?"

"I heard about that. Did you really think you could get away with sleeping in class?" Asked Blaze.

Shadow turned to Sonic after taking a sip of water. "Maybe if you stayed awake, you wouldn't be behind me in every single class, faker."

"Are you still calling him that, Shadow?" asked Tails. "It's not like Sonic deliberately copied everything you did."

"He didn't deliberately copy my classes, my clothes and my after school clubs?" Retorted Shadow. "Faker here has been trying to copy my style every since we got to this school. And he's doing a pretty bad job of it."

"That's not why you called me faker, faker!" Said Sonic. "You thought I was copying you when we fought in the jungle, and I wasn't even copying you. You were created 40 years before I was even born by Gerald Robotnik, the genocidal grandfather of Dr. Eggman! How come none of you remember this? What did Ryde do to you guys?"

"Is Sonic telling stories again?" Came a feminine, yet monotone and robotic voice.

Taking a place at the table was Cosmo.

"Who are you?" Asked Sonic. "You seem kinda famil - aaugh!"

Sonic felled backwards from his and yelled in pain. He felt like his brain was being torn in two. After a few seconds of screaming, the pain subsided.

"What happened?" Asked Sonic.

He hadn't noticed his voice had gotten slightly deeper and his fur turned into a darker shade of blue.

"Oh, hey Cosmo." Sonic spent a second thinking about what he just said. "Wait, Cosmo!"

"Yes, Sonic?" She asked.

"You're supposed to be dead!" Exclaimed Sonic.

"That's a rather mean thing to say." Came another female voice.

Between Knuckles and Rouge sat an orange echidna that was just out of Sonic's immediate sight. Sonic turned his head to find another person who shouldn't have been alive: Tikal.

"This isn't right. I mean, it's great to see you two again, but this isn't right!" Sonic was horrified. As great as it was to see his old friends again, he knew this wasn't supposed to be happening. He was also started to get truly worried of FF Ryde Er. Whoever this girl was, she could change reality, create fake memories, change the personalities of his friends, bring his friends back from the dead, change time and space and no one would know except her. And himself. Sonic began to feel that this was an enemy unlike any he'd ever faced before. She didn't want to take over the world because she'd already done it and can now freely do whatever she wants with it.

"Are you feeling alright, Sonic?" Asked Tails. He seemed genuinely worried. Sonic guessed Ryde could only change so much. "You've been acting weird all day."

"It's nothing Tails. Forget it." Sonic stared at his lunch in dismay. He couldn't convince his friends or anyone for that matter. FF Ryde Er had taken away everything from him and no one else knew. Sonic knew he had to stop Ryde, and he would, but it dawned on him that he couldn't ask his friends for help. This was something he'd have to do on his own.

"Nothing? You mean like all of you losers?"

Sonic's head snapped to look at whoever was standing behind him. No matter how much the world changed, no one justs insults Sonic the Hedgehog.

"And just who are you supposed to be? Queen of the Knothole?" Retorted Sonic.

"What's a Knothole?" Asked Cosmo.

Sonic scratched his head. "I'm not sure actual - eeeeeiiiiiiii!"

Once again, Sonic fell to the floor and felt his head breaking in two. After the pain subsided, Sonic grew a bit shorter and his voice grew to a slightly higher pitch. Once he picked himself back up, he identified the insulting voice as Sally Acorn.

"Sally! You're here too!"

Silver grumbled and looked away. "She's been here since the first year of school and never gives us the chance to forget it. She's a huge bitch and the worst person ever."

The fact that Silver swore registered in Sonic's mind but he was more concerned with Sally being here and insulting him.

"Sally, what did Ryde do to you? You aren't like this."

Sally just laughed at him. "Who's this Ryde person? Is she a girl you were dreaming about in class? It makes sense since no girl would ever want to date a loser like you!"

"You would." Sonic grumbled.

Sally hadn't heard him and turned to walk off. "Anyway, I think I'll be going now before people think I actually hang out with you losers. Have a nice day!"

Sonic could almost feel his heart sinking. Ryde couldn't just change his friend's memories; she could change his friend's personalities. She could take away everything that made them who they are and replace it with whatever she wanted. As disheartening as it all was, it only gave Sonic more incentive to stop Ryde. There was no way he was going to let her control his friends like this.

"God, I hate her." Said Amy.

"Hate is a strong word, Amy. But I agree, I really wish she'd find something better to do with her time than bully us." Complained Cosmo.

Sonic turned to look at the green haired girl who just finished talking.

He asked, "hey, who are yo - oooooouuuuuuuu!"

Sonic had another splitting headache and collapsed to the floor for the third time.

* * *

After more grueling hours, the final bell eventually rang and everyone was let out. Sonic was quick to join them.

"I'm finally out of that place!" Yelled Sonic as he rushed through the exit door. "Alright Ryde, I don't know where you are, but you can't run or hide from Sonic the Hedgehog!"

Sonic ran through the city streets to the lamppost where he first met Ryde. He didn't know why he thought he'd find her there, but it was his only lead. When he reached it he was disappointed to find that Ryde wasn't there.

"Now where can I find her if she isn't here?" Asked Sonic to himself. He hadn't noticed his fur returning to a bright blue shade, his height increasing back to normal and his voice returning to what sounded like a sarcastic teenager.

"I don't get it." A female voice echoed somehow echoed through the open street. Sonic recognized the voice. He recognized how it manages to come from everywhere, not just one place.

The voice spoke again, "why is it that no matter how much I try, I can't control what happens to you? I can write this world, your friends, everything, but you get to keep ruining the story."

Sonic could feel his blood boil at the last sentence. "_I'm _ruining things? This 'story' was garbage the moment you changed my world. Why don't you change everything back, go away, and learn to write a real story? One that doesn't suck!"

Sonic could feel the ground rumble. In a flash of light, a person in a black cloak appeared.

"You take that back you jerk! This story is great!"

Sonic chuckled to himself. He inadvertently brought FF Ryde Er out of hiding. Sonic still couldn't see her face because of the hood, and her voice echoed so he couldn't tell how old she was, he was still assuming it was girl, but he knew this was the person that was ruining his world. This time, he wasn't giving her a chance to get away. He jumped up and did a spin dash right at her, determined to take her down and make her fix things. He rushed in a blue blur and

.

..

…

….

Missed.

Rather, he went _through_ her as if she wasn't even there.

"You can't hurt me." She said. "I'm above you. I'm a being beyond anything in this world. To me, you aren't even real."

"Oh yeah?" Sonic bent his knees, ready to attack again. "Well then I guess I'll have to ask nicely again. Change everything back!"

"No. I don't want to. Besides, it's better this way." FF Ryde Er began to fade away. "Why don't you just cooperate? This is how things are. Everyone likes it better this way anyways. Now go back to school so I can continue the story."

"Go back to school?" Sonic asked. "I just got out of there. Why on earth would I go back? Besides, the sun's setting."

Ryde scoffed. "It's only over when I say its over.

And once again,

Sonic

could

feel

everything

around

him

fading

away

to

darkness.

* * *

**Whoa, this took me much longer to write than it was supposed to. It's not like I wasn't writing anything. I was working on a one-shot but it never quite panned out. I also lost motivation for this story for a few weeks but a quick run through the reviews brought that back. If you guys are willing to take the time to review and enjoy a story, it isn't fair for me to stop posting. Now a few things to address in this chapter:**

**This chapter was made to address out of characterness, or OOC for short. People have mixed views about this but when you change the personality of a character its like your not even using that character, just an OC in disguise. For instance, Sally. I don't know why this is, but people (mostly Sonamy fans) seem to enjoy using a continuity in which Sally exists and then turning her into a completely hateful bitch so that Amy looks better in comparison. I never understood this. Sally appears in one out of three continuities. Amy exists in all three. If you don't like Sally, just use a different continuity. There's no point in writing Sally just to slander her character.**

**Next is the headaches Sonic had. For those wondering what that is, Sonic suffers multiple continuity disorder, a mental disorder that affects fictional characters who exist in multiple continuities. Sonic, having a video game series, comic book series and cartoon series, definitely suffers this. Normally, a character never suffers any attacks from this disorder, but when faced with anything from a specific continuity, said character will have a violent headache and will adjust to the continuity. Sonic, upon seeing Cosmo, painfully shifted from his video game mind to his Sonic X mind. Then he saw Sally, which switched him to his comic book mind. Seeing Cosmo again sent him back to Sonic X. Being a video game character, Sonic would eventually return to his base form overtime so long as nothing continuity specific interferes. This is why we don't mix continuities. Everytime you do it a characters head goes through a meat grinder. I also completely made this up.**

**Anyhow, hope you guys enjoyed and keep reading. Next chapter will introduce two very horrible characters and should be up before a month's time. Also, the original length of the story, 25 chapters has been shorted as a few chapters weren't needed/weren't worth their own chapter. Sally, for instance, was going to have her own chapter before I fused it with this one.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: "Next chapter should be up within a month's time." HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA. Why I even said that is beyond me. I can never keep deadlines.**

* * *

Anger was rarely an emotion Sonic liked to dwell on. It just wasn't in his nature. Today, however, he had a whole lot of reasons to be ticked. To start, he woke up in class. When he asked around about how he got there, all the students just told him that he came to school barely on time like he always did, then plopped down on his desk for a nap. We he asked when was the last they saw him, they'd say since he left school and went home yesterday. It didn't take long for him to piece together what happened.

Ryde knocked him out. She used whatever powers she seems to have to knock him unconscious for a whole day and send him back in school. Then she changed everyone's memories again to make them think he came here willingly.

The day went on about the same it went on the day before: agonizingly slowly. Sonic was wondering how someone could think they could teach anything to anyone in a place like this. He also wasn't terribly fond of their teaching methods. It all seemed set up in a way to prevent people from learning anything at all. Especially nothing of value. Sonic definitely couldn't see how someone would find this entertaining enough to wrap reality just to watch kids sit in chairs. A few horrid hours passed with Sonic lost in his thoughts before he went out for lunch.

Like the day before, he sat with his friends, though he found it really hard to call them his friends. He wasn't sure who they were anymore. They looked like his friends. He could make out a few pieces of his friend's once shining personalities. But they were changed. Their memories, wiped, their personalities simplified or changed and everything that made him love them were gone. He knew that he'd need someone else to help him but he still wanted to be with them if only to watch over them. He considered switching tables to check if one of the other students could be of help. A likely pointless effort, he knew, but he had to try something. He scanned the other tables for anyone who looked confused or out of place.

That's when he saw hedgehogs.

The two hedgehogs (or foxes? Wolves? Sonic really couldn't tell), walked up to him and the male of the two sat at the table. The female hedgehog (Sonic decided hedgehog would suffice at this point) just looked nervously at them.

"Do you mind if we sit here?" Asked the girl.

Sonic didn't readily see how that could be a bad choice and said she could.

"Good," said the boy hedgehog with a smirk, "cause I rather like this table."

"What are your names?" Asked a green-haired girl Sonic had never met before. He would've looked at her more closely but his attention had been strangely drawn by the two newcomers.

"I'm Gary-Stu! Gary-Stu the Hedgehog." Remarked the boy.

Sonic cared less about his name and more about the facts that 1, this boy stole his catchphrase, 2, Gary-Stu is a weird name and 3, he would not stop smirking. Even when nothing had happened yet that deserved smirking.

The girl sat next to him and replied, "I'm Mary-Sue the Hedgehog. Well, those are our nicknames anyway. Our real names are rather long."

"And what are those?" Asked Tails.

"We'd rather keep them secret," said Mary-Sue.

"Oooooh," said Rouge, "how mysterious."

She walked over the where Gary-Sue sat and hugged his arm. "What secrets do you have?" She asked, flirtatiously.

"Plenty," replied Gary-Sue with a smirk.

Sonic stared at him and regretted every allowing him at this table. The way Sonic saw it, Rouge was being manipulated into flirting with this guy she just met. Sonic knew Rouge liked to tease a lot but she'd never fling herself on a guy like this. Beneath her sass and smart-mouth was a girl with respect for herself. He also couldn't stand that this guy was smirking like he just did something really impressive when all he'd really done is sit at a table without being invited. At least the girl he was with was polite enough to ask.

Sonic turned to Mary-Sue and asked, "is he your brother or cousin or something? You guys have similar names and all."

Mary-Sue laughed and everyone else joined with her.

"No, we're just friends. Friends from early childhood, in fact. Like I said before, Mary-Sue and Gary-Stu aren't our real names. We intentionally chose similar sounding names as a joke."

"That's so cool!" Said Silver.

Sonic really wasn't sure what was cool about it. He figured they were just being extra nice to the new kids. While Sonic had met a lot of interesting people in his life, he knew that anyone who had any real secrets didn't go parading about it. They typically kept it to themselves until they were ready to blast a planet apart with a space laser. These kids were just trying to be mysterious for some reason.

"Now then," said Gary and turned to Sonic, "you're the famous hedgehog Sonic, right? The self-proclaimed 'Fastest Thing Alive.'"

For a moment, Sonic stopped caring about the fact that his friends were under the control of some reality-warping goddess. Someone just challenged his speed.

"I _am _the fastest thing alive. Unless you think you know someone faster," retorted Sonic.

"I think I do know someone faster, and you're looking right at him."

Sonic was no stranger to the classic art of pre-game snark. Experience taught him that he could get one more quip in before action was needed. "All I see is an annoying grin from a kid who thinks too highly of himself."

"Alright, a race then. 100 laps around the school."

Sonic had already zipped to the front gate. Sure, he didn't like the events that led him up to this moment but no matter what kind of world he was in, Sonic knew one thing: _He_ was the fastest.

Gary-Stu casually walked over to the front gate and lined up with Sonic. All Sonic's friends gathered to watch (and, as Sonic noticed, the rest of the school for some reason).

Mary-Sue started the count down.

"3,"

Sonic got in running position while Gary just stood there. Sonic couldn't tell if he was just confident or was intentionally doing it to mock him. He figured it was a combination of both.

"2,"

100 laps around the school would take a little less than a minute for Sonic and not even at full speed. He wasn't going to assume this kid didn't have powers or tech or anything but it didn't matter. Sonic was going to win. If only to make at least one thing right in this upside-down world.

"1"

Gary-Stu just waved at the audience. He even got down to lie on the floor. Oh Sonic was gonna enjoy this.

"Go!"

Sonic dashed around the campus and made over a dozen laps in a matter of seconds. He was gonna take it easy on the new guy at first but his smugness was getting on Sonic's nerves and he figured someone needed to teach Gary a lesson about humility (it wasn't that the irony was lost on the normally cocky hedgehog, it's just that he knew there was a difference between confidence and arrogance).

It was only until he was almost done with the race did Sonic realise Gary-Stu never left his spot.

_Is he really gonna challenge me to a race and then not even try? I bet he knew that he couldn't win and is gonna act like he just let me off easy or something like that._

Sonic stopped running at lap 97.

"Aw, why'd ya quit?" Asked Gary in a mocking tone.

Sonic was getting tired of this kid. "You know, if your gonna challenge someone, its only decent of you to follow up. I don't have to race someone as disrespectful as you."

"Is that your excuse?" Replied Gary-Stu. The crowd oooooohhhh-ed Sonic. "Sounds like the fastest thing alive is just a quitter!"

"Burn!" Exclaimed the crowd.

Sonic couldn't believe they were taking his side. Not only was he new, but he was acting like a jerk. Why were they acting like Sonic chickened out when he was the one that actually ran the race.

Tails flew up to him and said, "Sonic, you can't just turn your back on him."

Tails actually believed Sonic was chickening out of the race. Sonic couldn't believe it. He could feel his heart sinking. His best friend, his _real _best friend would never do this to him. That's when Sonic remembered where he was. This was FF Ryde Er's world, not his. These weren't his friends. These were different people all together.

"Wow, can't believe you scared Sonic off like that. Nice!" Congratulated Knuckles.

"I didn't think Faker was this much of a coward," added Shadow.

"I thought Sonic was the fastest, coolest thing ever but now I'm not so sure," said Amy.

His friends were leaving him for that smug jerk. _His _friends. He took back his earlier thought about this being Ryde's world. This was _his _world, no matter how much she twisted it. Those were _his _friends, no matter how much they'd been altered. No one was gonna take that from him.

"Tail, I _am _gonna stand up to him. I'm gonna stand up to this whole school, this whole world and Ryde! But I'm not gonna do it by playing into her hands." He turned to Gary-Stu and the rest of the confused crowd. "You think you won? Fine, I don't care. None of this matters to me, not you, this race, or this school. All that matters to me is that my friends and I get out of this nightmare. Maybe we can have a real race when things are back to normal. Hopefully the real you has some decent manners."

And with that, Sonic walked away from a crowd that had no idea what he was talking about. All they knew was that Sonic the Hedgehog was a sore loser and a coward.

* * *

Sonic decided not to go to the lamppost after school. He figured Ryde Er wouldn't tell him anything useful and he doubted he could force her to change things. He wasn't entirely sure where to go, though. His friends couldn't help him, he didn't know where GUN's newest base was or if they could even help. He thought of using the Chaos Emeralds. He didn't know how they'd help him, but they were typically the solution to most problems. Really, he just needed something to do. He couldn't stand that a large part of his day was being wasted and he needed to try something to stop FF Ryde Er other than just lunging at her. He was about to set off on a blind search for them when he bumped into Mary-Sue outside of the campus.

"Sorry, sorry," apologized Sonic (though he was fairly certain she did so intentionally).

"No, it's my fault. I just wanted to say, that was kinda cool what you did back there." Mary looked down as if she were nervous. "I know Gary-Stu can be kinda hotheaded but he's a good guy."

_Somehow, I doubt that, _thought Sonic to himself, _he seems like a jerk pretending to be cool._

Mary-Sue started to lean in closer to him. "Look, I don't know why, but when I see you, I get all tingly. Sonic…"

Of course, Sonic already knew what was coming up. He'd hung around with Amy long enough to grasp the visual clues. This girl deluded herself into believing she loved him. Sonic was half-tempted to just run away on the spot.

Mary-Sue started yelling with her eyes closed (in a rather over dramatic fashion, thought Sonic) as if she was forcing the words out. "Sonic I love you!"

"Uh, no you don't," said Sonic, "look, I'm flattered, really but there's no such thing as love-at-first-sight. That's just a myth. I've lost count of how many times I've tried to explain that to Amy. I'm not much of relationship person, I don't even think I've dated anyone before (though there was this nagging voice in the back of his head telling him he has), but I do know there's more to love than just feeling flustered. It's something that takes time and work, ya know?"

_Dang, _thought Sonic, _That was some pretty solid advice! Rank S if I say so myself._

Mary-Sue didn't share the same thoughts. Instead she just burst into tears and ran off. Sonic might've ran after her if he hadn't heard his least favorite voice in the distance.

"Why did you do that?" Echoed the voice of FF Ryde Er. "Actually, first tell me _how _you did that."

"What can I say? I can't stand a relationship built on false pretenses. Kinda like what you did to my friends. I'm gonna have to change that," replied Sonic to the bodiless voice.

"Your friends are better this way! What I want to know is how you keep resisting my story. It's like nothing I write affects you. And then you went and broke Mary-Sue's heart you selfish jerk!"

Sonic shook his head before saying, "is anyone really listening to me today? I've given two really great speeches and it seems everyone misinterprets it somehow. Also, if I'm a jerk for letting a girl down easy, then what are you? You stole my friends!"

"Quit acting like this is my fault! You just can't see how great this is is all. Now, I want you to go back to school and-"

Sonic didn't even let her finish. He took off running like a madman. He wasn't sure if the blackouts could be dodged but he knew running would surprise Ryde and at least give him a chance at escaping.

He got as far as the edge of town before suddenly stopping in mid-run by an unknown force. Sonic could see the robed figure standing to the side of him.

"You can't escape me! Now stop ruining things and let me write my story! Besides, you've been nothing but rude and mean and it's time you paid for that."

Sonic would've protested that he'd been rather kind and patient all day considering how things had gone but by then he'd already blacked out.

* * *

**A/N: Damn, that took forever. I feel rather bad because it shouldn't have taken nearly as long as it did to write this.**

**This chapter addresses Mary-Sues and love at first sight.**

**Whenever there's a Mary-Sue around, morality tends to circle entirely around them. If a Mary-Sue is a jerk to another character, it's treated as just another one of the Mary-Sues **_**endearing **_**quirks. I know there's more to talk about Mary-Sues, but I'll get to it soon enough. Also, a word of advice. Smirking =/= coolness/badassery. It just means your character has an issue with his mouth muscles and should probably get them checked by a doctor. You should only smirk when you've done or said something cool and **_**no **_**your very existence doesn't count. Cockiness also =/= cool unless handled properly. If you have a cocky character who's cocky without any real reason to be other than that you think it's cool, you've made a mistake. It doesn't make a character cool. It makes him annoying. Sonic and Generator Rex are a couple of examples of cocky characters written well. Both have their reasons for their attitudes and we don't need them to smirk to be able to tell they're cool. The only exceptions are when the character's cockiness are clearly portrayed as a bad thing that everyone hates or finds annoying (take Blue/Gary Oak for example) or if the character is a complete joke who constantly gets humiliated.**

**Also, despite what your love novels might have told you, love at first sight doesn't exist. ESPECIALLY between teenagers. Sure, there are plenty of couples that have dated in their teen years and were a strong couple till death, but it's not common. At all. And it's almost purely luck that the person who got their imbalance hormones going turned out to be their perfect match. To quote Garnet from Steven Universe, "love at first sight doesn't exist. Love takes time, love takes work. And at the very least you have to know the other person."**

**Anyhow, most of the life issues that have kept me from writing have been mostly sorted out so it shouldn't be several months before the next chapter is up again. Constructive criticism is appreciated to ensure only the highest quality for you guys and to make me a better writer. This story is for you guys and I want you to like it as much as you can. See ya next time.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Ugh, looking back, I'm not a huge fan of how chapter 3 turned out. Like, Gary-Stu could've been explained so much better, and Mary-Sue got almost no screen time. I might've been doing that intentionally to prove some sort of point, but I feel like it could've been done better. This chapter really just serves to finish what chapter 3 failed to do. On a side note, the original amount of chapters this story was gonna have is still getting trimmed. Partially because it improves the likelihood of me finishing it, mostly because of lot of them are really, really pointless. On the upside, that means increased quality. **

**Now that I'm done publicly bashing my story, let's begin!**

* * *

As if class wasn't already a nightmare, the new kids weren't exactly making things better for Sonic. Aparently, Mary-Sue told everyone about how "heartless" and "cruel" Sonic had been to her, so now all his friends hated him. Whenever they weren't staring at Mary-Sue in awe of how beautiful she was, they were gawking at Gary-Stu, which was arguably worse. All Gary-Stu did was sit with his feet on the table and smirk with his eyes closed as if her were asleep (he was clearly awake, or, at least, clearly to Sonic). Whenever the teacher asked him to stop he'd just laugh, shrug and go back to being disrespectful. Of course, all the other kids thought this was cool and the teacher didn't really do much about it.

Eventually, class let out for lunch. On his first day, lunch had been the better (as in, slightly less terrible) part of this otherwise horrible experience. Now he had to deal with the new kids sitting at his and his friend's table and they weren't any less annoying there than in class.

"So, Gary and Mary," began Amy, "what are you guys doing after school?"

_Why does she even care? _Thought Sonic.

"Hmm, I think we can let you guys know," replied Gary-Stu, still smirking as always, "we have a mission to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds."

That perked up Sonic's ears. Just yesterday he considered using them. He thought about it some more during class but gave up on the idea after realizing he didn't have a single clue where they were. The day before this nightmare started he had used them to defeat Eggman; after that they scattered off like they always do.

_I hate to get involved in their lives anymore than I have to, but if they have some mission to collect the Chaos Emeralds, I need to tag along. Those Emeralds might be my best chance of stopping Ryde._

The rest of the table just gasped in awe.

"The Chaos Emeralds?"

"The mystical jewels?"

"No one's ever seen them in years!"

Their reactions surprised Sonic for two different reasons. For starters, he was surprised his friends even knew what the Chaos Emeralds were. He figured FF Ryde Er would've made them forget about the Chaos Emeralds. Second, he was surprised that in whatever world Ryde made, the Chaos Emeralds hadn't been seen in years. Sonic had just used them a few days back after all. He decided to pipe in before Mary and Gary started to answer questions.

"Mind if I join?" Asked Sonic.

His request shocked everyone at the table, including Mary and Gary.

Gary-Stu was the first to regain his composure. "Why do you want to come with us?" He asked. For once, he stopped grinning to give off a scowl. "Don't think we forgot what you did to Mary-Sue."

Sonic's friends gave him a mix of annoyed and angry looks, as if he should be ashamed to even speak.

"Um, consider it my way of saying sorry," lied Sonic, "I wanna make it up to you guys. Trust me, getting the Chaos Emerald is no easy job."

"How would you know, Faker?" Asked Shadow, "it's not like you've ever seen them."

His friends gave him another set of annoyed looks. "Trust me guys," he assure, "I know. Don't ask how, but I know."

Gary-Stu just yawned at him, "sounds like someone is just trying to act mysterious. But fine, if you wanna tag along, feel free to do so. We leave after school. And Sonic?"

"Yes?"

"Try not to slow us down."

* * *

Sonic stood at the edge of town with Mary-Sue and Gary-Stu beside him. He was rather amazed that he hadn't blacked out or that FF Ryde hadn't come out to stop him from leaving town. It gave him the rather uneasy feeling that he was doing something FF Ryde Er wanted him to do.

_And that, _thought Sonic, _is the exact opposite of what I need._

Still, he figured that he wouldn't mind playing whatever game Ryde wanted him to play. So long as he could get those Chaos Emeralds. Maybe with them he could find a way to undo Ryde's control.

"Get ready guys, I'm going to teleport us to their last known location," said Mary-Sue.

"You can teleport?" Asked Sonic, "how?"

"Um, special reasons," answered Mary-Sue, "special reasons I'd rather not go into detail at the moment. Now brace yourself because reentry can feel a bit nauseating."

Sonic had vanished before he could ask where they were even teleporting to.

* * *

Reentry was just as Mary-Sue had promised it'd be: nauseating. Sonic stumbled around like a blind drunk before collapsing on the ground. He considered himself a fairly avid teleporter after all his adventure but whatever type of teleportation Mary-Sue did wasn't what he was normally used to.

Behind him, he heard the smug laughter of Gary-Stu, who was standing up perfectly. "You feeling alright, Sonic? Need to rest for a while?"

Gary-Stu's mockery was all Sonic needed to leap to his feet. He was about to say some choice words to the arrogant (hedgehog? Fox? Wolf? Sonic still couldn't tell) teen but held his tongue.

_It's only temporary, Sonic. You need their help to get the Chaos Emeralds. Soon you'll be able to put them and this whole high school mess behind you._

Sonic decided to turn his attention to the scenery. The three of them stood in front of a cave entrance. Behind them was the edge of a cliff that led to the ocean. Above the cave entrance was a colossal mountain that Sonic imagined would be difficult to climb, even with super-speed.

"Well," said Sonic, "I can see why we needed to teleport here; there's no way someone could get here on foot! So all seven Chaos Emeralds are in that cave I take it?"

"Yes," confirmed Mary-Sue, "I can sense them from here."

Sonic chuckled before asking, "is Chaos Sense another ability of yours you have for special reasons you can't go into detail about at the moment?"

"Yes, they are," said Mary-Sue.

Sonic shook his head and said, "you know, you guys seem almost too cool."

Mary-Sue smiled and said, "thanks you! You're cool too!"

_That wasn't a compliment._ Thought Sonic to himself.

"Well, I'm cooler," bragged Gary-Stu, "now we're wasting time. We have Chaos Emeralds to find!"

Of course, Sonic was waiting for him to say something along those lines.

"How bout a race then?" Proposed Sonic, "we never did have an official one back at school. Don't worry Gary, out here, no one can see you lose."

"You must really like to lose," said Gary-Stu with a smirk and a forced sigh, as if he thought Sonic's challenge was a mix of annoying and cute, "alright, I'll race you. The Chaos Emeralds are at the end of the cave and it's a relatively straight path. All you need to worry about are boulders, spikes, and who knows what else."

"Sounds fun," said Sonic, "in fact, sounds like Tuesday!"

The two of them lined up in front of the cave; both of them in running position. Just like before, Mary-Sue counted them off.

"3!"

"2!"

Sonic was surprised to see Gary-Stu hadn't stopped to lie down or something. It looked like he was actually going to take this race seriously.

"1! Go!"

And the two were off.

* * *

Sonic's surprise of seeing Gary-Stu actually race was overtaken by the surprise of Gary-Stu winning. It only took a few seconds of running for Sonic to realise that charging into an unlit cave was a bad idea. He could only barely manage to jump, duck and spin his way through the various edges of the cave and falling boulders. He also learned that when Gary-Stu said "relatively straight path," he meant "the path goes in all sorts of jagged directions but there's only one path you can travel on." Sonic felt like every second of dodging an unseen rock spyre or speeding under a falling boulder or making a last minute turn. The wind sped through his spines in multiple directions each time to turn to dodge something. His ankles had to pivot so much he felt they were about to break off.

Meanwhile, Gary-Stu was traversing through the cave with ease. Flawlessly dodging every bit of rock, crack and spyre that came his way. Not to mention, making perfect drifts through the various turns in the cave. Even with all of Gary-Stu's backflipping and spinning, Sonic could see his annoying smirk.

The prospect of losing to the smug teen gave Sonic the motivation to keep going. He felt for the ring energy inside of him to start boosting through. In less than a second, Sonic was enveloped in a blue comet and blazed through the cave; breaking apart every obstacle the cave threw at him. With the power and extra light from his Boost, he caught up to Gary-Stu and streaked past him, looking to savor the look of astonishment when Gary-Stu saw Sonic overtake him.

Only there was no look of astonishment. Just Gary-Stu's constant smirking and a brief laugh. Gary-Stu surrounded himself in a golden comet similar to Sonic's own Boost and rocketed off even further through the cave. Sonic kept boosting through the cave, but as the light from Gary-Stu got smaller with each second, so did Sonic's hope of winning.

* * *

Waiting for Sonic in the shrine room stood Gary-Stu and his annoying smirk Sonic had grown to resent more than anything else on the planet.

"What took you so long, slowpoke?" Asked Gary-Stu, "I thought you got lost for a moment."

Sonic's pride was too damaged at the moment to respond. He decided to pay attention to the marble altar that the seven Chaos Emeralds were resting on; all of them circled around a multicolored fire that burned in the center. The shrine room's walls were decorated with ancient murals and torches that each burned a different color.

_One for each Chaos Emerald, I guess,_ thought Sonic.

"What is this place?" Asked Sonic, eager to change the subject.

From behind him, the voice of Mary-Sue answered his question, "it's a Chaos Shrine."

Sonic jumped into the air a bit and turned around to see Mary-Sue looking like she'd been there the whole time.

"How did you get here?"

Mary-Sue shrugged and said, "I ran. Just like you and Gary-Stu. Albeit, slower than you two so I could watch the race. I can actually keep pace with Gary."

_She's faster than me too? _Though Sonic, _it's like FF Ryde Er's wants me to hate what's she done to the world every second!_

"Okay then, you can teleport, sense Chaos Emeralds and run fast. That's nice. So as for this Chaos Shrine," said Sonic, "what's the deal with it? Why are all seven Chaos Emeralds here? And why do you two need them?"

"Well," began Mary-Sue, "I wanted them here. I wished them to be at this place. I have a connection with the Chaos Emeralds, remember? I can bring them all to this shrine."

"That only leaves me with more questions," remarked Sonic.

Gary-Stu stopped smirked for a moment to put on a more serious expression. Sonic thought it was rather overdone, but at this point, he figured Gary-Stu only had two faces: smirking and overly expressed anger. Gary-Stu walked over to the Chaos Emeralds. He reached out his hand and opened a miniature portal from thin air. Reaching into the portal, he pulled out a katana.

"W-what? How did you even-?" Stuttered Sonic, hopelessly. This day seemed to be going just like the cave: only one path that kept twisting and turning and getting more confusing and awful with each step.

While Sonic was still processing what was going on, Gary-Stu sweeped the blade across the altar, slicing The Chaos Emeralds horizontally in half. For a few moments, nothing happened. Then the Emeralds began to glow violently and explode in flashes of light.

"There," exclaimed Gary-Stu, "mission accomplished."

Sonic just stared at the altar. Then Gary-Stu. Then back at the altar. So far, nothing was making sense and Sonic wanted the relive the past two minutes just so he could try and understand it.

Eventually, he managed to get out, "you destroyed the Chaos Emeralds!"

"It needed to be done," said Mary-Sue, "trust us."

"Please tell me why exactly I should?" Asked Sonic, "I needed those Emeralds!"

Sonic collapsed to the floor. For once in his life, he felt like crying. It seemed like FF Ryde Er set him up on this adventure just to destroy his small bit of hope in front of him. He couldn't see how he could stop her. She changed everything that made sense in his world, everything that gave him a reason to keep going. He had to go to high school instead of adventure, his friends were changed, the Chaos Emeralds could be destroyed and he wasn't the fastest thing alive.

"What's the matter, slowpoke?" Asked Gary-Stu in a mocking tone, "Your legs can't hold you up anymore? They barely could earlier."

Sonic jumped up, sick of Gary-Stu's tone and yelled, "you son of a bitch! I needed those Chaos Emeralds to save my friends"

Sonic threw his fist in an attempt to punch Gary-Stu before feeling the ground fall from underneath him. His head crashing on the floor and he looked up to see Gary-Stu's annoying smirk.

"Try that again and I'll do more than drop-kick you," threatened Gary-Stu, "now, Mary, let's get out of here."

The two of them teleported away while Sonic just stared at the mosaic ceiling.

_I swore,_ thought Sonic, _another thing to add to the list of things that shouldn't be happening. _

Sonic didn't readily care about getting back to Emerald Town. He just wanted to lie down and give up.

He knew FF Ryde Er would drag him back when she needed him.

* * *

**A/N: Hmm, this got a bit more depressing than I originally planned it to be. And now that I think about it, it's likely gonna get a bit more depressing. But hey! Look at me updating frequently. Now that it's summer I have more time to write! **

**Now then, I was gonna ask y'all a philosophical question for fun, but more important stuff has come up it seems. In a move that completely and utterly defies anything that resembles logic or reason, Sonic Team has confirmed a Sonic Boom 2 (officially named Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice). Now, I've intentionally avoided stated my opinion on the Sonic franchise to avoid flame wars, but now I feel compelled to talk.**

**I've hated the franchise since Colors/Free Riders. Now, this is just my opinion. If you've got your own, you're entitled to have it and speak out about it. But in my opinion, Sonic Team made the horrible mistake of sacrificing the spirit of the series just to appeal to Nintendo fans. They thought a simplified, "kiddie" approach would boost sales and it clearly didn't. Sales got smaller. I was sorta fine with it since gameplay had been improved but good gameplay and graphics does not a fun game make. I wasn't as involved in the games like Lost World as I was with games like Black Knight and Adventure 2. The things that attracted me to the series were just gone.**

**Sonic Boom was a real test of my patience. Horrible game, horrible idea, horrible everything. Not to mention, it damn near bankrupted Sonic of America. Hate for the game was off the charts. You'd think that by now Sonic Team would've learned their lesson. I figured they would so I told myself to hold out till 2016. If they screwed up on Sonic's 25th birthday I'd be out of it for good. Now Sonic Team has decided to invest its mere $900,000 in another Sonic Boom game. A game that was supposed to be a spin-off! I truthfully cannot grasp how someone can can honestly think that's a good idea.**

**So yeah, I'm done with Sonic the Hedgehog. I'm still finishing this story of course, but it'll likely be the last thing I do with the blue blur save for playing old games. If you disagree with me, feel free to voice it. It wouldn't be fair of me to rant about what I think without letting y'all do the same.**

**Anyhow, chapter 5 will be up soon. Leave some constructive criticism if you can to improve the quality of the writing and help me grow as an writer. Cya soon!**


End file.
